Name: 貓咪的可愛祕密！科學揭密超萌成因！ (The Strange Science Behind Cat Cuteness)
Uploaded: 2025-11-08T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 9 min 6 s

程度副詞

What is it that's made them even more important to us today?

又是什麼讓牠們在今天對我們來說更重要了呢？

And when you put in the context of modernity and the disappearance of wildlife in humanity's habitat,

當我們將牠們置於現代的脈絡，以及人類棲息地中野生動物的消失，

how does the cat occupy that vacuum that's left behind?

貓咪又是如何填補了這份留下的空缺呢？

We're here at my studio in Shoreditch, London.

我們現在人在倫敦 Shoreditch 的工作室，

And I'm just at the end of a two and a half year project looking at cats titled Feline.

我剛完成一個為期兩年半，名為 Feline 的貓咪計畫。

At the heart of this project was to amass the essence of feline.

這個計畫的核心是匯集 Feline 的精髓。

When we first domesticated them, they were revered, and

當我們最初馴化牠們時，牠們備受崇敬，

then they were reviled under the witch hunts and now they're kind of online superstars.

然後在獵巫行動中備受憎恨，而現在牠們儼然是線上巨星。

And I tried to trace not just the evolution of the feline, but

我試圖追溯的不僅是貓科動物的演化，

also how that thread through culture has changed how we've chosen to shape the animals.

也探討了牠們如何貫穿文化，進而改變我們塑造牠們的方式。

And the majority of breeds came about in the last 50 years.

而絕大多數的品種是在過去 50 年間出現的。

What was it about us wanting to be godlike, to shape them, collaborating with scientists.

究竟是什麼驅使我們想如神一般，塑造牠們，並與科學家合作？

I'm there to ing and throwing, which is probably a healthy thing because it's giving it a foundation.

我會來回嘗試，這或許是件好事，因為這給了牠們基礎。

And I think that probably meant that we worked harder to understand the research behind the cat.

我想這大概意味著我們更努力地去理解貓咪背後的研究。

But what I really wanted to do here was to go down a journey and explore the different questions,

但其實我真正想做的，是踏上一段旅程，探索各種問題，

像是為什麼有 75% 的貓對貓薄荷瘋狂？

And evidence through a paper says that it reduces mosquito bites.

而一份論文的證據顯示，這能減少蚊子叮咬。

And apparently, ones that don't like that particular catnip have another plant that does the same job.

而且據說，那些不喜歡特定貓薄荷的貓，還有另一種植物有相同的作用。

But it kind of opens up something about our experience of a cat.

但這也稍微開啟了我們對貓咪體驗的想像。

So it's a real privilege in a sense, to be able to try to give visual form to this science and also to make it as relatable as possible.

所以某種程度上，能夠試著將這門科學視覺化，並讓它盡可能貼近大家，這真的很榮幸。

With Morten Kridlebach, who is a neuroscientist, he said, look, we could explore cuteness.

神經科學家 Morten Kridlebach 說，我們可以探索可愛。

Tim Berners Lee was asked a question, tell us what surprised you about the use of the web.

有人問 Tim Berners Lee，告訴我們網際網路的使用讓你感到驚訝的是什麼。

And apparently, all he said to them, after a bit of a pause, was kittens.

而據說他停頓了一下後，只對他們說了「小貓」。

And so then you're left with, well, why kittens have such an impact?

然後你就會想，嗯，為什麼小貓會有這麼大的影響力？

接著你就會開始探討，什麼是可愛？

Having my brain MRI-scanned in my own book.

在我的書裡，我的大腦接受了核磁共振掃描。

A kitten, a puppy, a human baby activates a part here and adult faces on the side here.

小貓、小狗、嬰兒會在這裡活化一個區域，而成年人的臉則在旁邊這裡。

So the audio frontal cortex gets activated uniquely for infant faces.

所以聽覺皮質會因為嬰兒的臉而產生獨特的活化。

And it does it at a speed 130 milliseconds.

而且這個活化速度是每秒 130 毫秒。

Given that it takes about 200 milliseconds for us to have conscious thought.

考量到我們要有意識的思考大約需要 200 毫秒。

So we're forming emotions before we have conscious thought.

所以我們在產生有意識的思考之前，就已經在形成情緒了。

And then, for example, my cat and we show him photographed at different stages,

然後，舉個例子，我的貓，我們展示牠不同階段的照片，

which was initially done at eight days old right through to eight weeks.

牠最初是在八天大時拍攝，一直到八週大。

So you'll experience the cat to scale and in a way, at some fundamental level, you can see how cuteness is unfolding.

所以你會體驗到貓咪的真實比例，在某個基礎層面上，你可以看到可愛是如何展開的。

And then we go and explain it and how the proportions been made in many of the breeds to be more juvenile.

然後我們接著解釋，許多品種的比例是如何被調整得更像幼年。

And we're doing it almost without realizing it has such a power over us.

而我們幾乎是在不知不覺中就這麼做了，它對我們有如此大的影響力。

They are the fastest terrestrial animal and even the domestic cat, they run fast and use some bulk on the short distance given.

牠們是陸地上跑得最快的動物，即使是家貓，短距離衝刺時也能快速奔跑並利用身體的衝擊力。

It has done a bit of training, of course.

當然，牠們也進行了一些訓練。

Got these glowing eyes, the tapetum cidium, which is these crystals in the back of the eye that pushes 40% more light through.

牠們有這些發光的眼睛，稱為絨氈層，是眼睛後方的水晶，能將光線推入 40% 以上。

But apparently, it's pretty crap when you're in bright daylight because they tend to flare up too much.

但顯然在明亮的日光下，牠們的眼睛會過度炫光，表現其實不太好。

所以貓咪顯然有更多的快速動眼期睡眠，

so they're kind of chasing their prey in their sleep so they can sort of optimize their skills when they need them.

牠們會在睡夢中追逐獵物，以便在需要時優化牠們的技能。

What would it be like to look right in the eye?

看看牠們的眼睛，會是什麼感覺？

We bought special lenses and using high-speed flash,

我們購買了特殊的鏡頭，並使用高速閃光燈，

we could actually examine that in great detail and show it almost like a lighthouse light, like a mirror.

實際上可以非常詳細地檢查這一點，並幾乎像燈塔的光一樣，像鏡子一樣展示出來。

But the more ominous side of that was of course, when the eyes glow in the dark, they.

但更不祥的一面當然是，當眼睛在黑暗中發光時，牠們。

There was superstition that that must be the devil glowing back.

有一種迷信認為那一定是魔鬼在回望。

And they were sometimes burnt alive with the witches during the witch hunts.

在獵巫行動中，牠們有時會和女巫一起被燒死。

There are many things that I didn't realize.

有好多事情是我之前沒有意識到的。

They actually have very blurred vision less than a foot away.

事實上，牠們在離臉不到一英尺的距離視力非常模糊。

And that the whiskers create a 3D tactile map with the air pressure without even touching.

還有牠們的鬍鬚能在不接觸的情況下，透過氣壓創造出一個 3D 觸覺地圖。

If you didn't have those working well and you had fleas, you were never going to get them out.

如果這些功能沒有正常運作，而且你又長了跳蚤，你根本不可能清除牠們。

But to actually see them as these hooks and then explore the story behind it, I think it's really, really exciting.

但實際上看到牠們就像這些鉤子，然後去探索背後的故事，我覺得這真的很、真的很令人興奮。

We have a whole page given over to an ear and there's a little sort of extra fold to the side, which is.

我們有整整一頁在講耳朵，旁邊還有一個小小的額外摺痕，這個。

There's a lot of debate about its function.

But apparently, there are over 30 muscles that operate the ear.

但顯然，有超過 30 條肌肉在控制耳朵的運作。

而且貓的耳廓可以轉動 180 度。

而且我們大部分的貓咪 anyway 都會用到牠們。

But evolutionary, they have so much more capacities.

但從演化的角度來看，牠們有更多能力。

They can hear the chatter of mice, no problem.

牠們可以聽見老鼠的吱吱聲，沒問題。

The sand cat lives in very, very arid deserts.

沙貓住在非常、非常乾旱的沙漠裡。

They have twice the hearing approximately of any other cat species.

牠們的聽力大約是其他貓科動物的兩倍。

But when I'd read previously about it, it usually focused on the fact that their prey crawl around at night and so on, but.

但之前我讀到相關資訊時，通常都聚焦在牠們的獵物會在夜間爬行等等，但。

But it turns out in dry air, sound doesn't travel so well.

但結果發現，在乾燥的空氣中，聲音傳播效果並不好。

Artists often try to explain about the kind of creative process and I think, as Picasso so eloquently said, I don't seek, I find.

藝術家常試著解釋他們的創作過程，我想，就像畢卡索說的，我不尋找，我發現。

And I think with any project, it's what you trip over and go, wow.

而我認為任何計畫，都是你偶然遇到，然後驚呼「哇」。

And then figure out, trace that back and how to deliver that.

然後找出、追溯那個源頭，以及如何實現它。

A lot of my images are very much like human portraits.

我的許多影像，都很像人物肖像。

I look at how we can make images more empathetic, informed by the old masters.

我研究如何讓影像更具同理心，並從大師們的作品中獲得啟發。

我使用一種叫做「反向搖晃」的技巧。

I'm fascinated that if you go to one side of a human face, it's more emotively charged or left gaze bias.

我著迷於，如果你看人臉的一側，它會更具情感衝擊力，或是左顧右盼的偏好。

So I employ that in the techniques of my work.

所以我將這運用在我的創作技巧中。

And so I'm bringing lots of different ways to, in fact, give more power and hopefully more connection and engagement.

所以，我結合了許多不同的方式，來實際賦予更多力量，並希望能帶來更多連結與互動。

I think what's been quite interesting in the collaboration is that as an artist, we're trying to organize an experience.

我認為這次合作很有趣的地方是，身為藝術家，我們試圖組織一場體驗。

We're interested in the cultural context of what we do and how it resonates in not always logical ways as imagery.

我們對我們所做事情的文化脈絡，以及它如何以非邏輯的方式引起共鳴感興趣。

Whilst working with scientists, there's a way of kind of grounding that imagination, but

在與科學家合作的同時，有一種方法可以將想像力落地，但

also, in a sense, giving it much more powerful form.

同時，在某種意義上，賦予它更強大的形式。

Then you've got the questions that are raised by this cat doesn't look real.

然後你會遇到「這隻貓看起來不像真的」這類問題。

And today that is brought into question even more so with GenAI,

而今天，隨著生成式 AI 的出現，這個問題更加凸顯，

the problem in the past was just keep the cat on the table because they do what they like to do, but

過去的問題只是讓貓待在桌子上，因為牠們會做自己想做的事，但

now, it's trying to prove that they ever were on the table.

現在是要證明牠們曾經在桌子上。

And so for that we had to kind of support evidence.

所以我們必須提供證據來支持這一點。

I find myself as one of the most great photographers out there.

我發現自己是眾多優秀的攝影師之一，

And my style actually being impersonated by the gendered models.

而我的風格竟然被性別化模型模仿。

So I found myself, when retouching an image like this,

所以當我修飾像這樣的影像時，

I would have retouched out the hairs that are flying in the air and the hairs on the ground.

我會修掉空中飛舞的毛髮和地上的毛髮。

And what we found that we needed to do was to reintroduce them and take imperfections

我們發現我們需要做的，就是重新引入牠們，

and add the imperfections back into the picture so that the picture would still be deemed as being real in the future.

並加入不完美之處，讓影像在未來仍能被視為真實。

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貓咪的可愛祕密！科學揭密超萌成因！ (The Strange Science Behind Cat Cuteness)

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